1. Field of the Invention
This application relates to semi-automatic firearms with improved safety features. More particularly it concerns hand-held or shouldered semi-automatic guns of the double action only type.
2. Description of Related Art
It is well known by police, military and other users of semi-automatic handguns that their accidental discharge is a very serious problem. Accidental discharge, often with fatal results, occurs by someone handling a weapon which was "supposed" to be on safety or, alternatively, which had its magazine removed and was supposed to be empty. Accordingly, much attention has been given, by designers, manufacturers and others skilled in the art of manufacture and use of semi-automatic firearms, to their construction or adaptation so as to avoid or mitigate the danger of accidental or inadvertent firing.
The present invention further addresses this problem and provides the art with unique improvements in firearm construction that accomplishes this desired result.
The majority of semi-automatic pistols in use, including those used as side-arms by the armed forces of the United States of America, are of the essentially single action type in which a firing pin, typically impacted by a hammer, is cocked into firing position by recoil of a slide when the weapon is discharged by pull of the trigger (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 984,519 and 4,754,689). Some of these weapons may be double action on loading of the first round, but single action thereafter for all rounds in the magazine, i.e., they are not double action only weapons.
Such single action pistols are notorious for accidental discharge and various embodiments have been devised to improve their safety. This has included modification of the sear mechanism to reduce potential for movement on dropping or other impact of the weapon (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,619) and disablement of the trigger upon removal of the magazine (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,420,899).
Double action type pistols are those in which the firing pin is not cocked by slide recoil, but wherein trigger movement both cocks and releases the firing pin for weapon discharge (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,857,325). Since such pistols are not "armed" until trigger pull, they have less potential for accidental discharge upon being dropped or impacted. Still, accidental discharge is possible in such firearms and embodiments of them have been created to improve their safety, e.g., disablement of the trigger upon removal of the magazine (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,031,648). The present invention improves upon the inherent safety features of double action type firearms by provision of improvements thereto that virtually eliminate the possibility of their accidental discharge by dropping or impact or because there was a cartridge in the chamber of a gun from which the magazine had been removed.
One manner in which better safety in use and aiming of pistols has been attained by this invention is to improve tactile aspects of trigger operation so that the operator can have positive, constant "feel" control of discharge. However, this is accomplished without substantially increasing trigger pull effort by the use of roller bearings in structuring of trigger, sear and firing pin mechanisms. This appears to be a new innovation in construction of pistols.
Another manner in which the invention improves upon double action firearms is to interlock the slide and barrel into a system that is not dependant on the frame or frame side rails for proper alignment or function. This has been done by utilizing rotary barrel and slide interlock lugs (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,427,966 and 4,522,107) in a novel arrangement.
A further manner of the invention for improvement of semi-automatic, double action pistols or other firearms is through the use of an elongated, pivoted linkage unit between the trigger and the sear. Such linkages have been used in prior firearms (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 566,513; 1,395,455; 2,139,203; 4,301,609; 4,358,987 and 4,825,744), but the present invention provides novel forms of such know type of firearm units to create the new, improved semi-automatic, double action only guns.